The Sterling Boys(45)

Another sweep of her tongue pushes aside the saint to make way for the devil.

Fuck it.

I'll be a stronger man tomorrow. Right now, all I want to do is give in.





***

RAIN



I've waited too long for this to let it end now, so he'd better not stop kissing me. I'd hate to make his own cousins kick his ass. And I would. I really would.

"Rain," he murmurs against my lips, cursing himself as he tries to put some separation between us, but he fails.

"What the fuck, Dane?" Maverick scolds, causing me to groan in frustration.

I almost want to slap Maverick. This is Dane. Not some loser copping a feel. They know better, and they'd better not scare him away. I will seek revenge.

"Shut it, Mav," I grumble, leaning into Dane once again and forcing my lips against his, pulling him as close as possible.

He groans long and loud, seeming torn about what to do, but he finally kisses me back and loses all restraint. Everything on me tingles in response, and all the unresolved emotions I buried long ago crash to the surface.

"Dane! Fucking stop!" Corbin growls, a chair sliding to warn me he's on his way over.

"Touch him and I'll break your balls, Corbin," I mumble against Dane's lips.

Dane's throaty chuckle vibrates against my chest, and I can't help but grin.

"She's drunk," Dale says, adding to the frigging cock-block fest. I'm so paying them back for this.

"Sober enough," I murmur, making Dane's laughter return.

At least he's still kissing me, and damn does it feel good.

"He's drunk," Maverick chides.

"Sober enough," Dane says with a grin, his words muffled when he refuses to fully break the kiss.

Chills cover me as everyone around us groans. Dane stands, keeping me wrapped around him. A thrill shoots through me, because he starts carrying me away, moving us toward the house.

“Let ‘em go,” Kade says, both him and Raya laughing after us.

This is it. I wanted to talk first, but fuck it. I'm tired of making plans for tomorrow. I'm ready to live today. To hell with the consequences.

He's forced to navigate blindly, because I'm not about to let go. Our tongues are hot and heavy against each other, both of us hungry for all the other will give. I'm pretty sure those pathetic moans are coming from me, but I really don't care.

Something crashes to the ground, but neither of us rip free from the near savage embrace. We leave behind one room after another, something tumbling behind us after every clumsy turn.

Dane's kiss is... damn. It's carnal, raw, desperate, as though he's felt the same way I have these past six years. And I can't get enough.

Before I know what's going on, a door is being kicked shut, I'm on a bed, and Dane's body is pressed against me, pinning me to the mattress. Torrid breaths, garbled moans, and whispered words neither of us understands are the only sounds we hear for several, long, incredible minutes.

"Rain, you'd better be sure about this, because it won't be just one night this time," he says against my lips, and my heart contracts to the point of pain.

I break the kiss to look up into his piercing greens. I'm almost positive that's my heart beating and not some set of Jumanji drums, but I can't be certain.

"What?" I ask in a rasp whisper.

His half-cocked smile makes my already frantic heartbeat become all the more erratic as he brushes some of my hair away from my face. His dark hair is a little messier now that my hands have been tangled in the silky strands, but he looks just as sexy even with it all disheveled.

"I said this will be more than just one night. It won't be like last time. If you want this, you get me. All of me. And tomorrow we won't be friends. We'll be more. If you're sober enough to do this, then you're sober enough to make this decision right now."

Decision? What decision? If I want this? He knows better. I've wanted this since we were kids, and... I wrote a letter... and... there were so many... I'm so frigging confused.

"I get you—all of you? What does that mean? And why can't we be friends?"

He studies me for a moment, measuring me possibly, and then he looks anywhere but in my eyes.

"We'll be friends, but not just friends. And none of that friends with benefits bullshit either. If we do this, then it's for real. Right now is that crossroads you hear so much about. If we walk out of this room before anything happens, we can go back to how we were. If we take this further, then... you're mine. It's pretty simple."

Simple? Where Dane and I are concerned, nothing has ever been simple. The Da Vinci Code is simpler than us.

"I'm yours?" I ask slowly, still trying to wrap my mind around this, because I think dreams only come true in Disney movies. Pinocchio becomes a real boy. Cinderella gets to stop scrubbing the floors and rides shotgun in a pumpkin. Sleeping Beauty gets to wake up. Snow White gets to wake up, too. Shrek and Fiona... no, wait; that's not Disney.